Marcos stresses need to distinguish functions of LGUs, national gov’t

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. reiterated Friday the need to identify the functions that solely belong to the local government units.

At the League of Provinces of the Philippines 4th General Assembly in Pampanga, Marcos said his administration is currently determining the functions of the local government which are separate from the national government's roles.

He also said he wants additional funding for LGUs, especially those that are highly dependent on internal revenue allotment (IRA).

"What we are in the middle of doing now is identifying ano ba talaga ang functions ng nasa local, ano talaga ang functions na dapat nasa national government. That's the service, 'yun 'yung service-based doon sa pagpili ng function," Marcos said.

(What we are in the middle of doing now is identifying what are the functions of the local government and the national government.)

"After identifying the functions that we feel belong to the national government, identifying the function that we feel belong to the local government... the... again to go back to the original concept was that mabigyan natin ng extra funding ang mga local governments because simply pag nakita ninyo, siguro 'yung mga highly-dependent lalo na... highly-dependent sa IRA, sa IRA mga 70%, 80% ng budget, lalo na 'yung mga ganon," he added.

(After identifying the functions that we feel belong to the national government and identifying the function that we feel belong to the local government... we go back to the original concept of providing extra funding for the local government, especially those highly-dependent on the IRA.)

The Marcos administration has been reviewing an executive order that aims to provide guidelines on the full devolution of certain functions of the executive branch to local government units.

This was the Executive Order No. 138 of his predecessor, President Rodrigo Duterte, which was released to implement the July 2018 Supreme Court ruling widening the base of the LGUs’ share in taxes or the "Mandanas Ruling."

He said this should be reviewed as the net effect in several areas would include loss of funding for the chief executive and the local constituency.

The Supreme Court ruling favoring increased share of taxes for LGUs stemmed from the petition filed by former Batangas Representative Hermilando Mandanas.

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman earlier said the completion of the study on the full devolution of certain functions of the executive branch to local government units could be finished in two months. — RSJ,GMA Integrated News